Colombo enforces price controls on key foods
SRI LANKA imposed price controls on key foods last Friday (3) as the government stepped up the use of emergency powers to counter shortages.
Queues formed outside state-run supermarkets even before they opened to sell sugar seized from private dealers at less than half the price being charged on the open market 24 hours earlier.
“There is no sugar available elsewhere,” said K Perumal, 62, at the Sathosa store in Colombo’s Maligawatte area where he waited for his two kilogram quota. “There are small children in my family, we need about six kilos of sugar a month,” he said. “I have not been able to find milk at all.”
Another shopper, N Wijeratne, said 2kg was not enough, but added: “Rationing is good because it will let others also a chance to get some supplies.”
The government, which declared a state of emergency last week, imposed a maximum price of 125 Sri Lankan rupees (£0.45) for a kilo of sugar and 95 rupees for a kilo of
white rice.
Authorities said more than 32,000 tons of sugar were found in raids on private warehouses carried out last Wednesday (1) and Thursday (2).
But there have also been sharp price rises for onions and potatoes, while milk powder, kerosene oil and cooking gas are also in short supply.
Only government stores have been opening because of a nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
Experts have blamed the food crisis on a shortage of foreign exchange to import and maintain stocks. “What we see is not a genuine shortage,” foreign minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris told a press conference on the food emergency. “It is an artificial shortage created by a few.”
Junior finance minister Nivard Cabraal said only a handful of items were in short supply, adding: “We have ample food stocks for the foreseeable future”.
Several produce and pharmaceutical traders said they had difficulty accessing foreign exchange to finance imports.